Last week, I enjoyed the privilege of being a housewife. I’ve been a housewife since the day hubby and I got married, but I’ve also been a working wife for most of those years. Let me explain.
A few months ago, I booked off last Tuesday and Wednesday to celebrate my birthday. Tuesday for prep, and Wednesday to enjoy my day with a clean home and food cooked. Then we booked hubby’s final appointment with the surgeon for his collarbone for Monday. I was blessed to book that day off too with vacation time. A few days after realizing that I had 3 out of 5 days booked off that week, I decided to finish the puzzle and book Thursday and Friday off. So I did.
I was excited. Outside of hubby’s appointment, we had no plans for the week. I was going to enjoy a “staycation” and enjoy not going to work for a week. My first holiday since last Christmas. It was long overdue.
On Monday, we went to hubby’s appointment and received the wonderful news that God said we would receive. A clean bill of health for his collarbone. No more sling. Time to get back to life. That morning I looked at hubby and said, “I get to be a housewife for a whole week.” I was so excited. We went out for a dinner date to celebrate. It was a wonderful start to my vacation. I also got a head start on the cleaning that I had originally scheduled for Tuesday.
On Tuesday, I did some baking. I had a whole list of things to make. I stated on Saturday and was well on my way to getting everything I wanted to make made. Along with a lasagna for supper Wednesday night. On Monday and Tuesday morning, during my quiet time with the Lord, I prayed that I would enjoy each day as it came and that the week wouldn’t fly by. The Lord blessed me, and I got to enjoy every hour of every day that week.
Wednesday came, and it was time to celebrate my birthday. Hubby also returned to work that day. I teased him and told him it was a great birthday present. After being off for so long and not yet at full strength, he is doing a gradual return to work. So, he was home a few hours later. My plan for Wednesday was to sew a new dress. It occurred to me this past summer that I didn’t have a pink maxi dress. So, a full-length pink dress. Well, that would not do. I had a pattern in mind, and when hubby and I headed north for my brother's wedding in September, Mom and I made a quick run to Fabricland, where she treated me to some beautiful pink fabric. Perfect for a summer dress. Thank you, Mom. So, after hubby left for work, I started cutting out my pattern and started sewing my new dress. I also recently inherited my late grandmother’s sewing machine. It has a lot of bells and whistles that mine does not. I grew out of my machine a little while ago and have been patiently waiting to receive the machine. I brought it home in September, did a few alteration jobs for hubby and decided that on my birthday I would start my first personal project on Grandma’s machine. It has been an exciting learning curve. When I first brought the machine home, I figured I would learn all the things it could do in one shot. I quickly decided that instead of overwhelming myself, I would learn each feature and add to my skill set one project at a time. Whether that be making it do what I knew it could do or figuring out if it could do something. I have learned a handful of its features over the last few days, and I am thrilled. There is a particular feature that my machine does not have that my mom’s machine has, and at first I didn’t think that Grandma’s machine had. Well, Praise the Lord, I accidentally found the feature. I was trying to make it do something else and stumbled on this particular feature. When I was offered the machine a year or so ago, I was hoping that it would take me to the next level of sewing, and I am pleased to say that it will.
I ran into a roadblock with my dress, though. I didn’t have enough fabric to make the design I wanted, and I was now out of elastic thread. I needed the elastic thread for the shirred bodice. I got 2/3rds through the shirring and ran out of elastic. Meanwhile, I tried to figure out what to do with the skirt portion of the dress. Finally, right before bed, I figured out what to do with it. So, Thursday morning I went to walmart when hubby left for work in search of elastic thread; no luck unfortunatly. Tried to order it online and spent the day waiting for it to arrive, only to get a phone call from a poor Walmart associate who had to break the bad news to me that they did not have the thread. I felt worse for them than I did for myself. Yes, I was disappointed and had to start searching again, but I felt worse for that poor teenager who had to call me and tell me. Anyways, I turned my focus to the skirt and got back on track with its assembly.
Friday morning arrived, and I was still enjoying every minute of my time off. I was feeling rather tired. I started feeling bad for feeling tired. Mid-morning, I biked over to Walmart and Dollar Tree to get a few things before meeting up with hubby after his shift ended. As I was biking to Dollar Tree, I was thinking about all the things that I had accomplished this week. Lots of baking, cooking, cleaning and 3/4 sewing a dress. I realized the enemy was trying to lie to me and tell me that because I didn’t go to work that week, I didn’t deserve to be tired. Once I realized it was the enemy, I got my thoughts in line. Once we got home, I told hubby about my feelings and rebuked them. Just becasue I did not go to work that week does not mean I didn’t “earn” the right to be tired. And just because I did not earn a paycheck that week, I used the vacation pay that I had saved up. So I was and am justified in being tired. Hubby is good at recognizing the enemy attacking him in his life, and I am now getting better at recognizing it in my life.
I started writing this post in my head on Tuesday morning from the perspective of Friday. I knew I wanted to share in the joy this week has been for me. But I quickly rebuked myself because I didn’t want to think about Friday on Tuesday. I wanted to enjoy each day as it came. And I did. I finished up the last blog post that week and started typing up this post Friday afternoon.
It has been the desire of both of our hearts that one day hubby will bring in enough income so that I do not have to work. Like any good man, he wants to be the sole provider for his family. We believe God will make that happen in time. I also want to run my own in-home business when the time is right as well. I was raised to believe that even if you are a stay-at-home mom or wife, you should still contribute to your family's income. I am a firm believer in that as well and looking forward to the day that our life looks more like what we want and what we believe God wants for us.
In the meantime, that week was a blessing and reminded me just how much I look forward to being more at home one day and being all that I wish to be as a housewife.
The narrative I’m seeing these days on line is that women are encouraged to chose what they want in life, so long as it involves the working world. But the second we say we want to be at home, raising our families, we are being manipulated and controlled and all that. I follow a handful of women on Social Media who are doing their part in changing the narrative and sharing how much they love being at home and that their respective families are thriving because of it. So, I’m here to add to the conversation and say that being a stay-at-home housewife or mom is a blessing and not a burden.
I pray this blesses and encourages you today, friend.
God Bless
~Hannah
This flower makes me think of the two main "roles" I currently play in my life and they they work together. Housewife and Working wife.
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